Ch.8

<p>When I was done eating I brought my plate back up to the serving shack. The lady took my plate and walked to the back to put it on the washing pile. I walked away and found Astrid. She looked so tired. I sat down next to her.<br/><br/>"Hey." she spoke quietly.<br/><br/>"Hi."<br/><br/>"What did you think of the new food?"<br/><br/>"It was so good! They actually gave me a good spoon full."<br/><br/>"Same, I feel relatively full now."<br/><br/>Tears welled in her eyes, one slipping down her cheek.<br/><br/>"What's wrong?"<br/><br/>"My leg," she took a deep breath. "It hurts."<br/><br/>Astrid was one of the toughest girls I have seen. When she first startedat factory 11, she dropped a cup while doing dishes and it shattered everywhere. The glass peirced into her bare foot and the consequence wasn't much better. The instructor used the belt on her. She never cried. So her crying was a big deal.<br/><br/>"Izayia."<br/><br/>"Yes?"<br/><br/>"I am so sick of this. The painstaking work, the living conditions, the people, all of it. I am done. I want to be able to live freely like they do."<br/><br/>More tears rolled down her face and dripped onto her ragged clothes.<br/><br/>"I want to be free."<br/><br/>I let silence ring before answering.<br/><br/>"I want to be free too. To be able to be free would be a great honor. But we are kids, there is nothing we can do about it."<br/><br/>"There is, we just haven't gotten creative enough yet."<br/><br/>We talked for a little longer before my mom found me and made me come back to our side of the alley way. Once I was back to our side I noticed the basket. I walked over and looked in it, there were a few apples and bananas in it, but the necklace, where did it go? I searched and searched and searched for it but it was no where. Where could've it gone? I know I put it into the basket!<br/><br/>"What are you looking for Izayia?" a voice said from behind me, it was mother.<br/><br/>"A necklace! Talla gave it to me and I put it into the basket."<br/><br/>"There was no necklace in there when I looked. Maybe it fell out?"<br/><br/>"Maybe, but, how could it?"<br/><br/>"I don't know but, you should get some rest. You have been working hard all day. We will look for it in the morning."<br/><br/>"Okay."<br/><br/>I walked over and layed down on the ragged blankets we had and pulled the only relatively good one over my shoulder. Soon I fell alseep and when I woke up the morning was bright and early. I sat up and looked around. Most of the people were still alseep so I had to be quiet. I began looking around for the necklace. Still nowhere to be found. I started to worry. What if I had lost it forever? What if that important to Talla? What if I never find it? The worry took over me so fast I sat down and began crying, no sobbing. If only I had hung on to it things would've been different. If only I would've listened to mother and trusted her. If only I was- well, thats not an option here. 'I have to keep my hope up' I told myself. I shimmied over to the wall and continued to sit. Zennith came to mind, this is where we sat, but now, he's gone, cold and alone, possibly drenched in water because of the rain.<br/><br/>Soon more and more people began to wake up including mother.<br/><br/>"Izayia? What are you doing up this early?"<br/><br/>"I didn't sleep to well last night but thats ok."<br/><br/>"Uh oh," She said taking me into a hug. "Do you still want to look for your necklace?"<br/><br/>"We can for a little bit I geuss."<br/><br/>"Okay."<br/><br/>We searched high and low for the next 10 minutes. Nothing, not even a clue of where it might be.<br/><br/>"We can look later tonight, for now we should get ready for work."<br/><br/>"Okay."<br/><br/>After I put everything away I was ready.</p>